M's extensive research on Wikipedia has found that today is officially Blue Monday - the most depressing day of the year.
Blue Monday has been scientifically calculated to fall on the last Monday in January, which is of course Monday 30 January in 2012. However, we at M aren't going to let that stop us as it's the last full week of January and we really don't have time to be fed-up for much longer.
To get things off to a solid, fact-based start, we asked PRS for Music's Chief Economist, Will Page for a couple of gloomy statistics and he came up with these:
Sad Fact One: 'Illegal peer-to peer site Mininova celebrated it's ten billionth download in November 2009, whereas the legal iTunes store celebrated theirs in February 2010.'
Sad Fact Two: 'The trade value of recorded music has shrunk back to the same level as when Oasis were signed in 1993.'
Sad Fact Three: New Order's 1983 single, Blue Monday is acknowledged by The Official Charts Company as being the biggest-selling UK 12-inch single ever, with over 1 million copies sold.
So, there's no point in fighting it: Put on your blues, goth, emo and shoegaze songs on your iPod - or failing that, The Smiths Greatest Hits - and wallow in misery.
To help you get in the (bad) mood, M will be running special features and interviews with the likes of Grammy-nominated British blues singer James Hunter, Sisters of Mercy guitarist Ben Christo and Birmingham (in The Midlands, not Alabama) bluesgrass group The Toy Hearts every day to commiserate January Blues Week.
Read M's exclusive interview with The Toy Hearts here.
Blue Monday has been scientifically calculated to fall on the last Monday in January, which is of course Monday 30 January in 2012. However, we at M aren't going to let that stop us as it's the last full week of January and we really don't have time to be fed-up for much longer.
To get things off to a solid, fact-based start, we asked PRS for Music's Chief Economist, Will Page for a couple of gloomy statistics and he came up with these:
Sad Fact One: 'Illegal peer-to peer site Mininova celebrated it's ten billionth download in November 2009, whereas the legal iTunes store celebrated theirs in February 2010.'
Sad Fact Two: 'The trade value of recorded music has shrunk back to the same level as when Oasis were signed in 1993.'
Sad Fact Three: New Order's 1983 single, Blue Monday is acknowledged by The Official Charts Company as being the biggest-selling UK 12-inch single ever, with over 1 million copies sold.
So, there's no point in fighting it: Put on your blues, goth, emo and shoegaze songs on your iPod - or failing that, The Smiths Greatest Hits - and wallow in misery.
To help you get in the (bad) mood, M will be running special features and interviews with the likes of Grammy-nominated British blues singer James Hunter, Sisters of Mercy guitarist Ben Christo and Birmingham (in The Midlands, not Alabama) bluesgrass group The Toy Hearts every day to commiserate January Blues Week.
Read M's exclusive interview with The Toy Hearts here.
